In this workshop we will investigate the possibility of reversing the usual order of explanation
of context-sensitive interpretation. Instead of viewing meanings as Grice-style inferences from
prior known, fixed or literal meanings, we will consider the possibility that so-called literal
meanings are, rather, abstractions from a sea of variable interpretations -- a kind of modeler's
fiction that nevertheless is useful for explanation and prediction. In this approach,
information-theoretic and semiotic approaches to communication converge on an account of human and
animal communication that holds out the prospect for a more continuous understanding of the
evolution of communication and language that does not exaggerate either the similarities or the
differences between human language and other forms of animal communication.